Dunno, wasn't born yet 🤷

Or it being a death trap in an accident.

It's not rare for the first company to bring a product to market to not be the top dog once other companies get involved.

For instance, Kodak pretty much invented the digital camera, but Canon and Nikon are the clear leaders now while Kodak's digital camera division was sold off.

I don't think the 3 was a huge breakthrough, although it sure appeared to be, the S/roadster was really where it happened. The leaf had been out for several years, granted it had limited range in its first production models. The 3 was only remarkable because it had higher range at the price point, but that was more of a battery technology thing than a Tesla thing, as the bolt and leaf both had comparable range at the same price point around the same time, they just had the baggage of their manufacturers reputations and/or previous model specs holding back their PR.

Don't know about availability in the US, but at least in Europe there are many, many alternatives out there, both from traditional brands (Mercedes, BMW, etc etc) and more recently, from Chinese brands.

A friend bought a BYD Seal the other day, he got a total bargain for their top version at 41k€, but that got me looking into them, and their lineup is looking pretty impressive.

Had a conversation about this the other day with a coworker, albeit about ICE cars but still applicable I think. Car manufacturers made tremendous progress in effeciency and negated all of that by justifying making their cars 2x bigger than they were 20 years ago. It's ridiculous. A modern Subaru Outback is about the same size as a mid-90s Suburban. Gets about the same mileage as my 2001 Outback, even with all the effeciency tech

Fair points! In my mind I guess I was thinking cyber truck vs. Rivian truck.

In Europe, European cars are a better choice than Teslas.

It's not specifically "the" bar, but the original comment was saying they didn't see how Tesla would even be considered, and I felt this feature is one reason why someone may still consider a Tesla.

For me, my dash cameras have come in handy when my vehicle was running, but the hardwire mode has not been able to handle what I wanted it to. I want my next vehicle (whenever that may be) to be an improvement over what I already have. I have personally had my vehicles damaged more than once whilst it was parked, and I have always parked well. Sentry mode would have been very bloody useful to have the responsible parties pay up. Instead, I was left with a damaged car, which was notably rather heartbreaking when one incident occurred within the first month of ownership.

EDIT: My motorcycle was hit and if I hadn't had known, I wouldn't have been aware enough to take it to the shop to be inspected in case any of the internals had been damaged. Sometimes damage can be internal and without an alert, you would be putting yourself in danger.

I've had a Ford (mid range SUV) and a Toyota (base model sedan) which were both damaged whilst parked, and nobody left a note. Lots of people posting in the community groups about carpark damage and no notes being left, and no luck with local cameras.

So yes, it is needed.

Well, I think it confirms what I said, BYD barely making it to the top 10 with 7k units sold while Volkswagen group has 3 of the top 4 brands (for EVs) with 50k units sold. Plus BMW, Mercedes, Renault and Hyundai groups. Chinese cars are growing by a lot of % because they had a minuscule market share. As of today, they are still a small part of the market, let's see where they land when they stabilize.